He waited a long time—so long, in fact, that he began to fear that his note might be ineffective, and he was contemplating a further appeal and wondering, in the event that this too failed, how long he could roost on the steps of the opposite house watching for her to come out, without being arrested. For he was determined to see her.
But at last she came.
She wore an evening dress of some glittering material, rich and black. Her clear-cut profile and delicately arched eyebrows reminded him of a cameo or an old French miniature. Her shoulders, rising from a corsage of black velvet, gleamed like tinted marble in the soft lights of the hall. It seemed incredible that she and the girl of a week before could be the same. He bowed in silence, dumbly staring.
He was recalled to himself by her voice. “Well, sir,” she reminded him, “you have something to say to me? Have you forgotten your lines?”
Caruth shook his head. “No,” he answered slowly; “I had only forgotten my cue. I was thinking in the fifth act, while we are yet still in the first. However, you have helped me out. My lines are these: ‘Your letter has turned up. Wilkins’s brother called on me to-day with a copy of it.’”
If Caruth intended to startle the girl by his abrupt announcement, he undoubtedly succeeded. She grew so white that for a moment he feared she was about to faint. Then a sparkle came into her eyes.
“His brother?” she repeated. “The one who wrote the letter?”
“Oh, no, no! Another brother. One who has been living in the West for years. A typical Westerner.”
“How did it get into his hands?”
“I can only guess. Probably Wilkins really took your warning words to heart, for he scribbled a brief letter on an envelope, and mailed the whole, probably by the chute in the building. The postmark shows that the letter was collected about three A.M. that same morning. It went to Denver to the brother, whose name is Thomas. Thomas dropped everything and started east. He got here this morning and came to my rooms to see his brother. He had heard nothing of the fellow’s death.”